Many trucks, particularly those hauling loose loads such as sand and gravel, need a truck cover to prevent the wind from blowing load particles off the load bed. Various apparatus have been devised for covering a truck load. Some such apparatus include a motor for selectively winding a flexible cover. An effective truck cover should be one which is easily operated by the truck driver so as to selectively cover and uncover the truck bed from the convenient location of the truck cab while tightly sealing both the front and rear of the truck bed to prevent wind passing under the truck cover and disturbing the truck bed contents.
My U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,955 provides a truck cover which may be conveniently motor operated from the cab of a truck while simultaneously extending the cover over the truck bed and pressing down on the front of the cover proximate a winding assembly which winds up the cover at the front of the truck bed. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,238,287 shows a front mount telescopic arm truck cover system, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,292,169 shows a truck container cover. Each of these designs and the rest of the prior art, however, is relatively complex and may require extensive welding and metal cutting.
Furthermore, the extensions normally used in conventional truck bed covers have to be long enough to reach from their mounting point to both the front and rear ends of the truck bed. Not only does such an extension require great effort to move from either its forwardmost or rearwardmost position, but it requires a large clearance to accommodate the point in its arcuate path directly above its mounting point.